


Backward, Forward, Forward

by sea_level



Series: Extended AUgust [5]
Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Established Relationship, Futuristic, M/M, More world-exploring centric tbh, desert wasteland, scavenging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25330606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sea_level/pseuds/sea_level
Summary: A snapshot of Nick and Jay on their journey through a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland.
Relationships: Nick Carraway/Jay Gatsby
Series: Extended AUgust [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811098
Comments: 3
Kudos: 22
Collections: AUgust 2020





	Backward, Forward, Forward

**Author's Note:**

> ah 5 hours until work. peak planning, me.
> 
> name is like. idk symbolic of the themes I implemented from the book.

The hologram makes a sputtering sound, flashes briefly into existence, but then glitches wildly until the light dies completely.

“Why are you still carrying that thing?” Nick asks as he arrives at the agreed-upon meeting place. He’s lugging a sled full of newly scavenged scrap metal.

Gatsby shrugs and leans down to pick the projector off of the sand. “Sentimental value.”

“Tell me when it stops having sentimental value so we can get the holo-crystal out of it,” Nick says. “That’s probably a week’s worth of meals alone. Plus it looks like one of those single-message models, so the memory circuits are probably completely degraded by now. No use keeping it.”

Jay shudders and quickly stashes it into his belt pouch. “Yeah, no.”

“Have it your way,” Nick says. He looks around the orange sky for the sun and winces. “We’ve still got an hour until the nearest outpost. We should probably get going. Help me hitch this onto the bike?”

* * *

Nick attaches the bike to a post, takes out the key, and guides it gently down as the hover tech powers off. He’s not sure if he’ll find anyone here willing to give him a good price on scrap. There have been a few outposts where they’ve had to go without pay because of it.

Well, legitimate pay, anyways, for whatever that meant in this quite literally lawless hellscape. Jay would never tell him if he was, but Nick suspected that he’d go gambling with their money before going out to buy supplies. If he did, he never lost which probably meant that he was counting cards, but, as long as nothing bad ever came out of it, Nick didn’t particularly care if he kept this particular secret. It’s not like they’d ever see anyone from this place ever again.

Nick’s not much of a negotiator, or, well, he wasn’t when they started out, but he’s gotten better at it over time. It helps that he knows materials prices like the back of his hand now, knows when someone’s trying to rip him off. 

The first buyer he talks to is obviously someone’s underling. He’s young, has no concept of the trade, and was obviously ordered to get so much material for so much money. Nick feels bad for him in passing, but not enough to do anything about it. He moves on.

He’s on the fourth when he finally unloads some copper off the sled. The buyer is eager and needs the whole batch, but she doesn’t quite have the budget for it. She does, however, direct him to the other side of the outpost where the better buyers are, so Nick considered it even.

* * *

Jay meets him in the middle of the outpost when they’re done. There are tables set up there, constructed or left behind by some good samaritan. Most outposts don’t have them, leaving Nick and Jay to set up their meals in the sand.

Nick hands over what money he’s managed to earn and Jay trades it for a packaged serving of nutri-mash.

“My favorite,” Nick says dryly, peeling back the rice paper to look at the gray-brown filling. At least the taste is faint enough that it’s more bland than anything else. Some chemists try to flavor it, but it rarely turns out.

“Hey,” Jay says, “if you want to die of malnutrition, be my guest.”

Really, Nick can’t complain.

* * *

“So,” Nick says, “I just realized I’ve never bothered to ask, but what’s the hologram even of?”

“It’s the OASIS announcement message,” Jay replies. He finishes pouring the fuel into the bike tank and tosses the container over the retaining wall and into the landfill.

“Really?” Nick asks, raising an eyebrow. “You’re literally carrying around spam mail?”

“It wasn’t spam to me,” Jay says, bringing his hand to his waist so he can touch the projector through the pouch, a movement performed so many times it appears almost like muscle memory. “Back then, everyone I knew thought that traveling and admitted into OASIS was the only way to truly survive in this world.”

“And even though you know better now, you’re still hanging onto it?” Nick asks.

Jay shrugs. “It was the first ray of hope I’d ever felt since the fallout. When I got the projector, I replayed the message so often, I even managed to fall in love with the speaker. So when I say sentimental, I mean _sentimental_.”

Nick stops halfway through tightening a bolt. “Wait, Daisy? You fell in love with Daisy?”

“Well, yeah.” Jay squats down into the sand and takes the wrench, finishing the job. “I was completely dedicated to her. She was my first love, my savior.”

Nick takes the tool back and puts it away. “She’s my second cousin, actually. Once removed. She’s great, but don’t buy the hype.”

“Mmh, I’ve had plenty of time to move on,” Jay says. He picks up the slide and straps it to the side of the bike, resting his arms on the seat bench and leaning forward. “Met someone else, actually. He showed me there were other options. Better ones.”

“Should I be jealous?” Nick jokes.

“It’s you, genius,” Jay says and kisses him.

* * *

Sunrise comes early enough, illuminating their entire tent with orange, debris filtered light.

“I told you we should have set up on the other side of the outpost,” Jay complains, rubbing at his eyes and propping himself up on one arm.

“Mmph,” Nick says into Jay’s shirt, trying to pull him back down like he thinks he can convince Jay to go back to sleep simply by being clingy.

Jay presses a kiss to the top of Nick’s head and then expertly removes himself from Nick’s grasp. “I’ll give you the stinkiest mash we have if you don’t get up,” he says sweetly.

Nick groans and sits up just so that he can glare at him. Still, Jay’s right. If they don’t keep making good progress, their weeks-long journey could start easily pushing into months.

“Alright, fine,” Nick says, pulling the rest of the blanket toward him so he can fold it. “You want to start packing up outside?”

“So you can go right back to sleep?” Jay asks jokingly. “Definitely not.”

* * *

The hologram flickers. It’s completely incoherent now, just green light and stray lines, with no evidence of the original image remaining. It reminds Jay more of Nick now, of all the conversations they’ve had surrounding it, even if some of that original, underlying feeling remains. You never forget your first, right? Even if it was entirely parasocial.

The light dies and Jay turns the projector over in his hands. The battery probably won’t last much longer, and, when that happens, he really will have to hand it over for scrap, but until then—

Jay presses replay.

**Author's Note:**

> honestly i kept getting stuck on the worldbuilding for this...and I just realized after writing it that this is literally the setting of some old post-apocalypse dream that I had once a long time ago. literally the only post-apocalypse dream I've ever had. shockingly also one of the happiest dreams I've ever had.
> 
> i like to think their destination is some small co-op which stands in direct thematic opposition to tom's rich people consumerist paradise, OASIS, but I don't think I'm smooth enough to finesse this kind of messaging into my fics yet lol
> 
> first idea was jay made/maintained a failing ai that took daisy's image in hologram form and nick was like. "this is weird. you know this is weird, right?" but then I realized that I literally had zero story to go with it and that I frankly don't have the mental fortitude to figure out another getting together fic rn lmao
> 
> as per usual, pls yell grammatical/syntax/etc mistakes or comments at me, love you all


End file.
